A long day in the saddle for the 174 riders on the 16th stage from Bagneres De Luchon to Pau saw Lance Armstrong (Pictured below) in the breakaway group for the penultimate mountain stage.
There were massive crowds enjoying the hot weather on the Col de Peyresourde, the Col d' Aspin, the 2115m Col du Tourmalet and the final climb at the Col de Aubsique.
Armstrong's group which included Ruben Plaze Molina, Chris Horner, Carlos Barredo, Pierrick Fedrigo, Jurgen Van De Walle and Christophe Moreau, was nine minutes clear as they approached the final climb.
Moreau won the final climb and pocketed the forty points for the King Of The Mountains jersey.
Everyone including Sandy Casar who was 1.35 down with less than 60km to go was thinking about winning the stage. as Casar got to the leaders, Barredo attacked and built up a forty second lead.
With less than three km to go and Barredo looking like he was suffering, the gap was down to 14 seconds. Armstrong's group with his team mate Chris Horner (pictured below) driving up the pace, kept chasing.
With just over a kilometre to go, Barredo was caught and thoughts were turning to whether Armstrong could win the stage. However, Perrick Fedrigo won the sprint to win the stage with Casar second and Armstrong sixth.
This was the sixth stage victory by a Frenchman in this tour and his time was 5hr,31,mins and 43 seconds. The peleton arrived six minutes and forty five seconds down and Thor Hushovd (pictured below) won the sprint to regain the green jersey.
Alberto Contador is still in yellow, eight seconds ahead of Andy Schleck.
Tomorrow is a rest day in Pau but Thursday's stage is 174km long from Pau to the Col Du Tourmalet. You can see it live on British Eurosport and ITV4.
Pictures copyright of Covsupport News Service. Credit CNS/KM